2014.12.23 - Noise 11 - Interview with Richard

by **Uli** Mon Dec 29, 2014 12:29 pm

On Dec 23rd this video interview with Richard Fortus was posted:
http://tinyurl.com/o5fw6so

Transcript:

Richard: Hi, I'm Richard Fortus from the Dead Daisies, and you are watching Noise11.com.

[cut]

Interviewer: Welcome to Noise11.com, Richard Fortus, who were up on the stage this week with the Dead Daisies. There was a few new songs kicking in there, Richard? You're using us as a bit of a Guinea pig?

Richard: What did you think?

I: I thought that it's time for this band to get in the studio and actually do an album as the band.

Richard: Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're excited. We actually have recorded these songs.

I: Yeah?

Richard: Yeah.

I: Well, you've done the EP, which was pretty incredible and the difference between that and essentially, I guess, the original album, which was effectively David and Jon together with-

Richard: Some studio-

I: Studio guys, but you know, what came together with The Face I Love EP was actually Dead Daisies, the band that we're really hearing on recording for the very first time.

Richard: Yeah. Yeah, exciting. I'm very happy with that. I'm very proud of it and we've since then gone in and done another.... It was originally going to be another EP, but I think now we're going to wait and release a full album, do some more songs.

I: Well, some of the ones, well, I heard for the very first time last night, how old were some of the songs? Like brand new?

Richard: They're new, yeah. I mean, we've played them in the studio and some of them that we played last night, a couple of them, was the first time that we played them.

I: Yeah, Jon got out there at one point and made the comment that, you know, like, he was testing us out as it was [?].

Richard: Yeah. No, it was great. It was fun to see the reaction. You know, it gives you [?] good read on how it's going to go down, how the songs are going to go down.

I: It must have been a an interesting venue for you to play last night. I know you were out here earlier on and play places like the [?] and Saint Kilda. You know, so you are not unknown from the pub gig in Australia, but the tradition of the Australian pub gig, you know, like, they're the venues that bred Rose Tattoo and AC/DC and The Angels and all those bands came out of those sort of venues. Does that give you an insight as somebody from over seas as to how Australian music-

Richard: Oh absolutely. sure. It's very much on our minds, I think. At least for Dizzy and I for sure. The last tour that we did here with the Daisies, we did play clubs and that was very much in our mind that we were following in those big footsteps. And yeah, I was excited.

I: Yeah, I remember, you know, seeing one of the gigs at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl here in Melbourne, one of the Guns N' Roses shows you did with Angry Anderson jumping up there.

Richard: Yeah, yeah.

I: Who's the fan? Axl is the fan? But is everybody in the band the fan of Rose Tattoo?

Richard: Yeah, I think we're all pretty big fans. And then I played with Angry. Well, I played with Rose Tattoo in Sydney at the Rock for Doc benefit. And that was a big honor to go to do that. Yes, Rose Tattoo has opened for GN'R a couple of times, the last couple times we've been here. And it's great. We love having them. And Angry usually gets up and does Nice Boys with us.

I: Oh yeah.

Richard: But a lot of times they'll do sound check with us and play, like, old Humble Pie songs and stuff. What a voice, that guy.

I: And you know, I've seen Slash get around in the "No Way, Get Fucked, Fuck Off" t-shirt.

Richard: Yeah, yeah.

I: The Angels are obviously another big influence on, you know, a lot of members of this band, but particularly David Lowe from Dead Daisies is really you know, was very close to Doc Neeson.

Richard: Yeah, and when Doc passed, GN'R was in Australia, sorry, in Vegas, doing a residency and we did Marseilles. A few shows we did that in honor to him.

I: Yeah, we had John Brewster in a few days later and we showed him that video footage up on YouTube.

Richard: He was mortified.

I: No, no, he was really honored.

Richard: Really?

I: Yeah.

Richard: That's great.

I: You know, like, if anything, you know, Marseilles is one of the most Angels sounding Angels songs there was. I mean that's a great song to pick.

Richard: I actually came down, we were doing a rehearsal that day and I just heard the news and I told to Axl and Ax sat at the piano and thought for a second and he said, "You know, I was really hoping I would get to see him again." Yeah, so I suggested we... I actually just started playing it and he said, "Let's do it." And so we did that night. Without half the band hearing it before (laughs). Yeah... some of the guys had never heard it, so...

I: Wow, pulled it off.

Richard: Yeah.

I: It worked.

Richard: It was fun.

I: When was your first GN'R gig?

Richard: 2002, I believe. Yeah, I was just telling you about the first outdoor gig, it was that tour.

I: Yeah, where where it rained for November Rain?

Richard: Yeah, yeah. We were just talking about how it always rains when we play outside for that song. But yeah, that was my first outdoor gig. And it was pretty amazing.

I: Well, you know, I know for a fact that it does happen, because it did happen in this city.

Richard: I don't know what the deal is. Axl got a direct line with God or something, I don't know, but it seems uncanny and it happens a lot.

I: Yeah, this has been a very interesting year for you because you've been juggling both Guns N' Roses and the Dead Daisies. Is it pure luck that these two things don't collide?

Richard: Sometimes it's luck.

I: [laughing] He's holding his breath.

Richard: Yeah, sometimes it's luck. But yeah, there's been some conflicts and it's difficult to try and keep them both good. You know what, I've always dealt with this, with the Furs, doing Psychedelic Furs shows, I mean, I did a tour with Rihanna and went back and forth. Was able to work that out. At least for a while.

I: Yeah. Look, I was looking down your-

Richard: I did Thin Lizzie. I did both bands until I couldn't anymore, you know.

I: Nena was in there as well.

Richard: That's right. That's right.

I: What's it like getting up there as a guitarist and playing 99 Luft Balloons?

Richard: Yeah, that that wasn't one of my... Oh, I actually did a record with her, wrote and recorded a record, and that was a big record, it was like triple platinum in Austria and Germany and Switzerland. And did a following tour with her, she's amazing. She's so wonderful to work with. She's a real rock star. She just doesn't want to leave her comfort zone, there's only, you know, Europe.

I: She had such a massive hit with that song in this country.

Richard: She did in the States too, but didn't tour. She didn't feel comfortable. But she's awesome. Yeah, I love her.

I: That must be interesting for you from a a musician point of view, to actually work with people like that, that have had the history in the past and then suddenly you're part of, you know, what they're doing currently.

Richard: Yeah, I mean, it's always fun to play, to work with different artists. You get to do different things. It's all music, it's all fun. Especially when it's music like Thin Lizzy, you know, it's like music that really influenced me and it was a big part of my life. Being able to play those harmonies with Scott Gorham, you know. For a guitar player, that's like... to follow that lineage, you know, with Gary Moore, Brian Robertson, you know, John Sykes, it's just such an honor, you know, to be part of that and to play these parts is really cool.

I: You're obviously not afraid of delving into a different musical genre. I mean, to work with Rihanna, you know, some guitarists would say, "No, I'm a rock guitarist, not a pop guitarist." To go that way. But, you know, it doesn't seem to phase you.

Richard: It's all music. I don't, you know, I don't really... I don't tend to draw lines, you know. I love music. Be it country or.... I'd love to do a country gig. I've done a couple of country records, but to do a country gig would be fun, at least for a little while. To do pop gigs is fun for a little while then, I think, it quickly becomes a job, and that's when you get bored. It's like, "OK, enough," you know, because you're doing this, it's very-

I: You have to stick to the exact note every night, I guess.

Richard: It's very structured.

I: With the Dead Daisies you can play around a bit?

Richard: Yeah, that's rock and roll. I mean, that's just like it's different every night. And same thing with GN'R, it's different every night, you know, we don't even have a setlist. You know, the songs are different and it's dangerous and there is.... I don't know, it's... That's the difference between pop and real rock'n'roll bands, I think. But with Nena, it was different all the time. We'd have big sections that you never knew what was going to happen, you know.

I: Looking down your list of credits, you must be one of those go-to guitarists. You know people like Pink have used you, Ben Folds has used you. How does it work?

Richard: For a long time, yeah, I did a lot of records. I mean, that was just what I did in New York. I was the session guy, you know. I couldn't afford to go on the road, I didn't used to go there. I couldn't afford to tour because I was making a lot of money and I was super busy in the studios in New York and L.A. and I was always working and doing that stuff. And being on the road didn't pay, you know. Occasionally I would, you know, I'd go out like with the Furs. When the Furs go out, I would always go out because those are my... It's like your family, you know. But it was tough, you know, it was tough to tour in those days because I was losing money. And I love being in the studio as well, you know, but I also love playing live. I miss making records the way they used to be made, where there were these huge budgets and you could really take your time. You're experimenting with sounds and things like that. Now it's different when you're in a studio. Now most of that type of real creative stuff is done, at least for me, I do it at home and people send me files and then I have a studio at home. you know. But I miss going to a studio where you're with, you know, a group of people and you're making music. I miss that.

I: Yeah. When you record with the Dead Daisies, is that all the guys in the studio?

Richard: That's all of us in the room together playing. The way we've done it, we did some recording here in in Sydney, we did recording. And we tracked in New York as well. But it was very much a live band type of thing where we were in the studio... it was great because there's a magical moment that happens when you first write a song, the first time it all comes together, there's this one magic take, you know, that where you play it and you go, "Wow! Wow, that was it, that was amazing!" you know, and to be able to capture that is really great, you know, and that we had that luxury on the last set of recordings and on the EP.

I: But I guess when you go into the studio with that philosophy and then you leave the studio and get on stage at a gig, you can actually do what you did in the studio. I mean, in the studio, recording is basically just capturing the live performance anyways. So it kind of makes the Dead Daises show a lot more exciting as a live event.

Richard: Yeah, I guess so. Yeah, it does happen very organically live, too, you know. But yeah, we were really fortunate in that way that we were able to.... The songs were basically written and as soon as we worked them out in the studio, while we were recording, which was great.

I: It was fun watching quite a few covers that you were throwing in last night.

Richard: Yeah, we did a bunch of covers last night.

I: Yeah. And then a couple of little things, you just sort of throwing in there, like, Buffalo Springfield and I think there's a little Led Zeppelin snuck in there.

Richard: That's right. That's right. Very good. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. Those things just sort of happen, you know, it wasn't... the Zeppelin, like, wasn't planned, it just sort of happened.

I: It'd be good to get up there and I guess play your influences. Stay With Me by the Faces is probably one of the greatest live songs of all time, but it's also one of the sloppiest live songs of all time, isn't it?

Richard: Yeah, and you know what? I have a real hard time with that song because the Faces are one of my favorite bands and there's some things that... It's the same thing with Helter Skelter. It's like, I didn't want to do Helter Skelter. I was vehemently opposed to it. And when we did it, I heard Jon singing, it was like, "OK, I get it," you know? It's great because he sings it so well. Same thing with All Right Now, which we did last night, like, you don't mess with that, you know, but I think Jon just does such a great job with it.

I: Yeah. Well, you were just on the road recently with Bad Company and Paul Rodgers.

Richard: We were. That was exciting. And Lynyrd Skynyrd. That was a lot of fun for us.

I: Yeah, were you doing All Right Now in the set and then Bad Company was going on?

Richard: No, no, no. And we did a Parasite last night.

I: Oh, the Kiss song!

Richard: Yeah. We learned that because when we did the cruise with those guys, because we we did a tour with Kiss and Def Leppard right after we did the Skynyrd/Bad Company shows. And, you know, I was all excited to do the Bad Company/Skynyrd because those guys were such huge influences on us. And we thought, "Oh, we're going to walk away with their entire audience and we're the perfect combination of both those bands, and this is gonna be great," and it was good, but there weren't... I don't know. It just, I guess was an older audience and... But the Kiss/Def Leppard crowd loved us, which we were sort of like, "How are we gonna go down with Kiss fans?" You know, because it's not something that was certainly big influence. But then we learned that song on the cruise because they do a night where everybody plays a couple of Kiss songs. So Pat Travers and Robin Zander, you know, those couple of Kiss songs. So we did that song. We did our own version of it. And yeah, and we liked it so much we did it last night.

I: It is a fairly obscure Kiss song, too. [?] make it your own.

Richard: Yeah. Kiss were kids weren't big here?

I: They were. You know, I Was Made For Loving You was massive.

Richard: Oh right.

I: In fact, you know, it was probably bigger here in this country than anywhere else in the world. It's one of those songs they always include in Australia, but sort of, you know, leave out in other parts.

Richard: That was the disco period.

I: Yeah.

Richard: Yeah, I wasn't into that stuff. But the early stuff, I mean, when I was a kid in the US and they were... them and Aerosmith and Queen were the biggest bands in the world and they were everywhere, you know, and as like an 8 year old like, it was very formative for me.

I: Couple of things just to finish off with. And I wanted to talk about Divinyls. You would have played on possibly one of the last Divinyls recordings?

Richard: I think it was the last one.

I: Was Chrissy [Amphlett] sick at that point? It was around 2008, wasn't it? The song we're talking about, Don't Wanna Do This.

Richard: Yeah, we did a few songs together. And that was a really magical experience. Chrissy and I hit it off right away. Charley [Drayton] and I are very close and Chrissy had come to a show...Ian Ashbury was singing and Charley and I were playing with him and she came to that show. And that was the first time I met her. And she said, "I want to record with you and do something with you." And we'd been planning it for a long time and just sort of happened and came together. But man, it was just Charley, Chrissy and I in the studio. And Mark [McEntee] sent his parts over or added them later, but it was the three of us putting this stuff down and it was just... It's one of those experiences that I'll never forget. And actually, Charley just sent me some of the outtakes, the between song stuff, that was recorded and wow, it was just, it was... It just brought me right back to that moment. And it was just amazing. She was such an amazing woman.

I: Oh yeah, yeah.

Richard: Really incredible. Yeah. That was a really, really special experience.

i: One final one, you told us before we were talking, a few months ago, about the soundtrack work you've been doing.

Richard: I actually just finished it, a film. After the Kiss tour, went home.... Yeah, I told you about it? OK. Yeah, I did a kids movie and finished it just before I came over here.

I: So what's it called?

Richard: Marshall the Miracle Dog. It's a movie about a dog, an a kid and you know, kids and dogs.

I: Is that something you do often?

Richard: It's something that I love to do. And I used to do a lot of it, used to do a lot of commercials, video games and movies. Now I'm I'm trying to get back into it, it's really difficult to stay in that world when you're touring all the time. So that's been the conundrum for me, is how to maintain that and keep it going when, you know, around my.... It's very difficult to do that.

I: Well, let's hope there's a Grammy in there for it.

Richard: I'm trying.

I: Or an Oscar.

Richard: An Oscar, yeah, that would be great.

I: Yeah, stranger things have happened.

Richard: That's true. Look at Trent [?].

I: True. Richard Fortis from both the Dead Daisies and Guns N' Roses, and a whole stack of other credits if you go and Google him. Thank you for joining us here at noise11.com.

Richard: Thank you very much for having me.

by **Soulmonster** Tue Dec 30, 2014 7:52 am

summary from jeaubear at mygnrforum:

interviewer talks about a recent show he attended. said its about time the DD got in the recording studio again.

they talk about Australian clubs and music

mention the GNR/rose tattoo collab the last time they were in Australia and how Axl and the band look up to Rose Tattoo (they spend a bunch of time talking about this)

he talks about 4tus' first GNR gig in 2002, apparently it always rains during November Rain when they play outdoor gigs, and how he's been juggling DD and GNR and "there have been some conflicts", and the bands he had to quit to keep up GNR (Rihanna, Thin Lizzy, etc etc)

he talks about other artists he has worked with and who he looks up too. says he would love to do a country gig, but is mainly done with pop. "Rock is different every night…. GNR is different every night"

he talks about his coming up and how he made it into the music industry vs. how he does music now.

how the recording process, and the songwriting process take place in DD.

Studio vs. Live show

they talk about the covers DD play and how they come about. 4tus says "they just happen"

the tour with Bad Company and LS is brought up. Fortus says the Kiss crowd liked them better then the Bad Company crowd

they talk about some band called "deviles" (correct me if I'm wrong, but i never heard of them) and there last recording sessions.

and to top it off, they talk about 4tus soundtrack work.